Not to worry, our students are certainly not hooked on drugs, but after this year’s ‘real-world’ COMMERCIAL RADIO PRODUCTION (RP1) experience, they are now 100% ADDICTED toproducing world-class radio commercial campaigns!

In fact, the ‘Top 10’ students (pictured above), together with our 2 sound- engineering interns, have just helped veteran copywriter, creative director and producer Greg Smith create a brilliant new radio campaign, aimed at increasing public awareness of Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre (CTDCC).

A perfectly-timed campaign to help uplift Cape Town!

Drug addiction is a major problem worldwide, but in Cape Town it has now reached ‘Tsunami-levels’, and is a primary cause of the recent violent protests and major unrest. While our community’s war against gangsterism and drug-dealing intensifies, the intended prey of the drug-lords and their dealers are the addicts, but the addicts’ families and friends also become the victims, often feeling too helpless to intervene. Coupled with rising unemployment, ‘rehab’ is also seen to be far too costly, and time-consuming. Which is why Drug Counselling with an experienced professional therapist is a viable and proven solution, without which, addicts often relapse.

Why we believe in the work of the Cape Town Drug Counselling Centre (CTDCC):

Since 1985, the CTDCC has offered sponsored, affordable professional therapy for addicts and training assistance to their loved ones, wishing to intervene. It’s an ‘out-patient’ facility ─ enabling addicts to continue working and, of course, it’s far more affordable than rehab.

Creating the campaign

Greg: When I conceptualized the scripts, I didn’t want to take the predictable approach of ‘preaching’ to the victims of drug addiction; I did not want to create a ‘mirror’ – reflecting the exact hell they already know all too well. A fresh, unexpected approach was preferred. In the end, I decided to focus equally on 3 target groups: addicts, casual users and non-users ─ who may be considering whether or not to TRY drugs for the first time.

To cut-through-the-clutter-on-air, great radio adverts always grab listener-attention; engage and resonate; are relevant yet unexpected, fresh, and memorable… they have a ‘Wow!’ factor.

The ‘Big Idea’, in a nutshell:

Radio Ad 1 title: ‘THINGS DRUG DEALERS WILL NEVER TELL YOU’

Greg: The idea is very intriguing because no drug dealer will dare tell you the whole truth about the adulterated drugs they sell, as they would soon be out of business! If you’re even thinking about trying hard drugs, please listen to this spot a few times.

Radio Ad 2 title: ‘THINGS DRUG ADDICTS WILL NEVER TELL YOU’

Greg: Very few (if any) drug addicts choose to intentionally destroy their lives and ruin the lives of loved ones. Taking the same conceptual direction (and feel) as Spot 1, the impact of ‘what’ the drug addicts are telling you in this radio spot, should be enough to convince most to stay clear of hard drugs or get into therapy at CTDCC. After I emailed the scripts for approval to CTDCC, I received nothing but positive responses, like this:

“Congratulations Greg, this is fabulous material, I can’t wait to hear it on radio!”

The Final Production Sessions (Mon Oct 1st – Friday Oct 5th):
The scripts were extremely challenging, requiring tight editing, a wide variety of voices and various ambient tracks, original music and sound effects. A very tall order and YET the team managed to polish and finish-up TWO 60 second CTDCC radio ads by Tuesday, so we were able to present them to the client, Ashley Potts, by early Wednesday morning. His reaction to the final produced work was overwhelmingly positive. We’ve included his glowing letter of commendation below.